The dance of death : the full series of wood engravings reproduced in phototype from the proofs and original editions

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THE

DANCE OF DEATH

HANS HOLBEIN

THE

DANCE OF DEATH

BY

HANS HOLBEIN

THE FULL SERIES OF WOOD -ENGRAVINGS

REPRODUCED IN PHOTOTYFE

FROM THE PROOFS AND ORIGINAL EDITIONS

EDITED BY

DB F. LIPPMxVNN

DIRECTOR OF THE ROYAL PRINT- ROOM BERLIN

LONDON

Bernard Quaritch
r

MDCCCLXXXVI

7

ii

J- lie series of compositions by H.ms Holbein
illustraling the power of death over mankind,
commonly called The Dance of Death was
never finished according to the Alaster's
original plan and the engravings have never
been published in a imiform fashion. Between
the years 1^22 — i~;l:6 Hans Lut-elburger the
imrivalled woodcutter, whose graver alone was
able to do proper justice to Holbein's designs
engraved a part of the woodcuts at Basle,
one of them the Duchess, bears his monogram.
It is now almost universally allowed that
both the illustrations for the Old Testament
as well as for the Dance of Death were
executed by Holbein and Lut'^elburger for the
Lyons printer Melchior Trechsel. The greater

part of the former work and a considerable
portion of the other was ready in 1^26, when
Liit^elbiirger's death and Holbein's departure
for England interrupted the undertaking.
Forty one of the engravings of the Dance
were then quite finished; in two or three more
the wood-engraver's work was nearly done,
the designs were drawn on the blocks in some
of the others and Holbein probably left the
sketches for the remaining two.

The entire material, finished and imfnished,
was given to Trechsel, when he 1^-26 laid claim
to certain parts of Lut'^elburger's property;
the blocks of the Dance of Death and all
belonging to it being brought to Lyons.
A number of proofs had however been taken
from the blocks before they had left Basle,
no doubt already during Lut-elburger's life-
time. These proofs are easy to recogni^^e
by the fact of their being printed on one
side only, and by the clearness of the impres-
sions. It seems that only a very limited
number of such proofs were taken and that
they were not intended for sale, nevertheless

3

two different issues or editions of the proofs
can be distinguished , one edition of forty
n'oodciils has German headi]igs in cursive
type, while the other contains forty -one
engravings with headings printed in Gothic
letters; the additional cut is the Astro-
nomer: "Der Sternsecher". Complete copies
of the proofs with cursive headings are in the
Museum at Basle and in the Paris Bibliotheque
Nationale and incomplete sets are to be found
in other public and private collections. But per-
haps the finest copy, both as regards the quality
of the impressions and their state of preservation,
is the one we have used for our facsimiles in the
Print Collection of the Royal Museum at Berlin.
Of the edition with Gothic headings only one
imperfect copy is known, in the Bibliotheque
Nationale at Paris.

The blocks remained in Trechsel's hands
for inany years, before he seems to have
thought of publishing thou. On the one hand
political considerations may have prevented
him from printing in such a very Catholic
town as Lyons, a work in which the Roman

4

clergy and the King of France are seen in
an unfavorable light. In the picture <f the
Pope the Devil is sitting on the canopy over
the throne, waiting for death to sei^e the Pon-
tiff and eagerly watching for his soul. The
Emperor, who has the well known features of
Maxamilian is called away from his might and
glory, as the highest temporal power on earth,
a judge and rider of mankind , while the king,
the exact likeness of Francis I, is taken from
a simiptuous banquet, where death offers him
a cup of rvine. These facts and the considera-
tion that the painter, who was employed at the
court of Henry VIII had a strong leaning
towards the reformed faith were no doubt the
cause that Holbein's name was omitted in all
editions of the Dance of Death, and allusion is
only made to Lut^^elburger, in the preface
as an artist already deceased. Another reason
for the tardy publication of the blocks may have
been, that Trechsel wished to find an engraver
capable of cutting the remaining woodcuts, con-
formably with those engraved by Lut^elburger.
The first book- edition of Holbein's Dance of

Death, published by the brothers Melchior and
Caspar Trechsel finally appeared in i^^H with a
French text and the title: "Les Simulachres et
historiees Faces de la Mort, aidant elegamment
pourtraictes, que artificiellement imginees."

Trechsel had succeeded in obtaining writers
able to make an introduction and short French
verses to go with the pictures without offen-
ding the susceptibilities of a Catholic reader,
or rendering the book suspicious. In this
first edition he only published the 41 blocks
engraved by Lut'ielburger. The next editions,
which were issued, two in i45-, — «"'* "'''^^ '^
Latin, the other with a French text, — and the
third, (the fourth of the Lyons series) in i^4s
have also no further woodcuts, but the fifth
edition, (the second published in 1545 "Lugduni
subscuti colonieuse") has eight more scenes of
the Dance, vi:^: the Soldier; the Gamester; the
Drinker; the Idiot Fool; the Highwayman;
the Blind Man; the Waggoner and the Outcast;
besides two groups of Children.

The later book-editions of the Dance of Death
contain several g>-oups of Putti or children

bearing aj'ius , drums and triimpcls, emblems
of war, the chase and vineculture , in all
six compositions. It is not at first easy
to see the connection between these groups
and the Dance of Death , though the fact of
their being evidently designed by Holbein and
having the same dimensions as the woodcuts
of the Dance, that two at least seem to have
been engraved by Lutr^elburger, (Nos. LII
and LIII of our phototypes) some of them
being found in all the editions published after
the year is45, seems to prove that they were in-
tended to belong to the work, perhaps as a
joyous contrast to the tragical representations
of destruction and death. The poets, who
wrote the verses to Holbein's compositions,
managed to bring these groups of children
into a more or less strained connection with the
weird figures of the Dance. Four of these
groups of " Putti" are found in the edition
of 1^4^ and in five other editions up to the
year iS54- -^" ihe next edition, which appeared
in 1^62 two more groups are added, vir^ :
Nos. L VII and L VIII of our facsimiles, of

the two latter No. LVII, desif^ued like the
others by Holbein, is engraved by a very
feeble hand.

The above mentioned additional woodcuts
of the Dance published after 1^45 ''^''O' con-
siderably in treatment. The "Soldier" and the
"Wai^goner" are engraved in so close an
imitation of Lut^elburgers' style, that it seems
not iynprobable, that he himself cut the greatest
part of them, leaving only some details im-
fnished. The technical treatment of the Blind
Man and the Highwayman is much inferior to
that of these plates and they are certainly not
by Lut^elburger, whilst the Drinker and the
Gamester are by quite another hand, still less
able to do justice to the finish and expression
of Holbein's design.

The Bride and Bridegroom, two plates only
published in the last edition of i^b'j, differ entirely
in exection from the rest; Holbein's general
outlines can still be distinguished, but he
does not seem to have drawn the design
himself on the blocks, or at most he could
only have made a hasty sketch, whilst they

8

have cvidoitly been cut by an artist of the
Lyons school, who tried to imitate Liil-jcl-
burger's style.

The aim of this little book is to give
amateurs and the public an exact facsimile of
the originals by means of a mechanical photo-
type process, and to form a complete collection
of Holbein's compositions of the Dance of
Death , which are never all to be found to-
gether in any one edition, except in the latest
of is(^-- But this edition being verj- rare
and therefore hardly accesible to amateurs
and having besides the disadvantage of the
blocks being so much irorn out and the ma-
jority of the copies so badlj- printed, that
they only give a faint idea tf the artistic
value of the v'Iu)le, n'e may therefore hope,
that our facsimiles will be welcome to the
admirers of the great artist. The first part
of this volume contains the reproductions of
the forty pi'oofs willi tJw headings in cinsive
type, the second part, consists of the ''Astro-

9

uoiner" and the n'oodaits added to the editions
after iS-f-5- The six groups of children,
n'hich are found in tJie editions from is45 to
i^f'f2, form the appendix.

The phototypes have been carefully executed
in the Chalco graphical Deparlement <f the
Imperial Press at Berlin.

THE

XXXX PROOFS

Ber Bifchoff.

VII
THE BISHOP

T)fr Thumherr*

VIII
THE CANON

T>er Apt.

IX
THE ABBOT

Cff VfAnherr.

X

THE PRIEST

rDjy Vrediciint.

XI
THE PREACHER

XII

THE MONK

Tier Artxjct*

XIII

thp: physician

Der Kof^y*

XIV

THE EMPEROR

Bey Kunig*

XV
THE KING

Df)* Uertzog*

XVI
THE DUKE

Der Groff.

XVII
THE COUNT

D(r Kitter.

XVIII
THE KNIGHT

^P^' Fiii.'ff^»'<«

XIX
THE NOBLEMAN

T}rrndt(^yn.

XX

THE ALDERMAN

DtV [chopffung ixUcr d'mp

^52^

THE CREATION

Adm Eui m vamdyl^.

II

ADAM AND EVE IN PARADISE

Vl?trihmg Adc Euc.

Ill

THE EXPULSION FROM PARADISE

Adm hmgt die trden .

IV

ADAM TILLING THE GROUND

DerBdpfl*

THE POPE

T>er Cdrdml

VI

THE CARDINxVL

Dfr Kichter.

XXI
THE JUDGE

Der Tnrflirdch.

XXII
THE ADVOCATE

Der Rych mitn.

XXIII

THE RICH MAN

T>er K<iujfmc(n.

XXIV
THE MERCHANT

Dw Krdmcr.

XXV

THE PEDLER

Ber Schijfmnn.

XXVI
THE MARINER

Tier Ac^ermiin.

XXVII
THE PLOUGHMAN

Tier Alt man.

XXVIII
THE OLD MAN

i:>ieKeyferinn^

XXIX

THE EMPRESS

Die Ktiniginn,

XXX

THE QUEEN

DlcKertzogimt.

XXXI

THE DUCHESS

JDieGreffmtu

XXXII
THE COUNTESS

Die "^delfrdm.

XXXIII
THE NOBLE LADY

T)ie Aptil^m.

XXXIV
THE ABBESS

Die MM«Hf.

RnT

XXXV

THE NUN

I^dJ^Altweyh*

XXXVI

THE OLD WOMAN

B^y? Tun^^int.

XXXVII
THE YOUNG CHILD

GeheynaUermcnfchtn*

XXXVIII
THE END OF MANKIND

Djj?:ij«g/?gmV^f.

XXXIX
THE LAST JUDGEMENT

T^lew<ip(ndel?thotf^.

XL

THE ESCUTCHEON OF DEATH

ADDITIONAL WOODCUTS

FROM THE EDITIONvS

PUBLISHED

BETWEEN 1538 AND I 5 6 2

XLI

THE ASTRONOMER
1538

XLII

THE SOLDIER

1545

XLIII
THE GAMESTER

1545

XLIV
THE DRINKER

1545

XLV
THE IDIOT FOOL

1545

XLVI

THE HIGHWAYMAN

1545

XL VII

THE BLIND MAN

1545

XLVIII

THE WAGGONER

1545

XLIX
THE OUTCAST

1545

THE BRIDE
1562

LI

THE BRIDEGROOM

1562

APPENDIX

THE

GROUPS OF CHILDREN

FROM THE EDITIONS

PUBLISHED

BETWEEN 1545 AND 1562

LII

LIII

LIV

LV

LVI

LVII

LVIII

INDEX

/ The Creation
II AdiVJi and Eve in Paradise

III The Expulsion from Paradise

IV Adam tilling the ground
V The Pope

VI The Cardinal
VII The Bishop
VIII The Canon
IX The Abbot
X The Priest
XI The Preacher
XII The Monk

XIII The Physician

XIV The Emperor
XV The King

XVI The Duke

XVII The Count

XVIII The Knight

XIX

The Nobleman

XX

The Alderman

XXI

The Judge

XXII

The Advocate

XXIII

The Rich Man

XXIV

The Merchant

XXV

The Pedler

XXVI

The Mariner

XXVII

The Ploughman

XXVIII

The Old Man

XXIX

The Empress

XXX

The Queen

XXXI

The Duchess

XXXII

The Countess

XXXIII

The Noble Lady

XXXIV

The Abbess

XXXV

The Nun

XXX VI

The Old Woman

XXXVII

The Young Child

XXXVIII

The End of Mankind

XXXIX

The Last Judgement

XL

The Escutcheon of Death

XLI

The Astronoiner

XLII

The Soldier

XLIII

The Gamester

XLIV

The Drinker

XLV

The Idiot Fool

XL VI

The Highwayman

XL VII

The Blind Man

XL VIII

The Waggoner

XLIX

The Outcast

L

The Bride

LI

The Bridegroom

LII-LVIII

Groups of Children

tmmmmmmmmmm'^immefmimm* I mm > ' •%.

L>_

lUlDING ^^

iOV/9, 1981

PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

Holbein, Hans

5 the

Younger

(1^7-15+3)

The dance

of death;

ed.

Lippmann